Foreword (W. Safire).Preface: An Epidemic of Fear.PART ONE: BOOMS, BUBBLESAND BUSTS.Introduction.The Bulb That Ate Holland: Tulipmania.Booms & Bubbles.New Lands, New Schemes: The South Se and Mississippi Companies.Panics & Runs.Crash: The Great Depression.He Said/She Said.Bernard Baruch on Basic Math & Eternal Truths.Making the Play: The Internet and the New Economy.A Bubble is a Bubble is a Bubble.Keeping Your Head When All About You Are Losing Theirs.PART TWO: RUMORS & SUGGESTIONS.Introduction.Chicken Licken's Apocalypes Now.Something from Nothing: The Alchemy of Suggestion.Tom Wolfe on Waiting for the Beatles.Waiting for Godot.Roswell, New Mexico: Things That Go Bump in the Night.James Thurber on the Day the Dam Broke.Keeping Your Head When All About You.Are Losing Theirs.PART THREE: FEAR & PANIC.Introduction.Worst-Case Scenario: The Martians Are Coming!Life Imitates Art, Art Imitates Life.The Iroquois Theater Fire: They Had Gone Mad.The Mechanics of Disintegration.The Fall of Saigon: If You Have Time, Pray for Us.Russell Baker: Roar of the Crowd, Inc.Harry Truman on the Harvest of Shame: What Hysteria Does to Us.Keeping Your Head When All About You.Are Losing Theirs.PART FOUR: VIOLENCE & VIGILANTES.Introduction.Los Angeles, April 29 to May 1, 1992: Dance of Destruction.Riffraff or Resister?The Beast Within.Lynching: Thinking About the Unthinkable.An Outcome Altogether Predictable.Mark Twain: The Pitifulest Thing Out Is a Mob.The Men Snarled and Shouted As They Flung Their Stones.Rwanda: When the Mob Is the State, Horror Becomes Ordinary.Keeping Your Head When All About You Are Losing Theirs.PART FIVE: LEADERS & FOLLOWERS.Introduction.Der Fuhrer: The Voice of the Mob.Lemming See, Lemming Do.Following the Leader: The Violence of Nonviolence.Leading the Followers: Fire Within Fire.Off with Their Heads.A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing.Hans Christian Andersen's Tale of Leaders & Yes-Men.The Mind of the Mob: Stupidity Accumulates, but Also Heroism.Rudyard Kipling on Leading and Following.Keeping Your Head When All About You.Are Losing Theirs.Acknowledgments.Text Credits.Illustration and Photo Credits.Index.
